I don't think the APPRs themselves have any large effect on cancellations or delays. I think when we went into this, after Mr. Emerson did his report, and we were setting up the regulations, we thought that if airlines had a lot of fines to pay for these cancellations and delays, they would change their habits.
Well, it doesn't work that way. It actually looks like when they get a number of claims, they continue to cancel flights because the economics are so much larger for choosing a different aircraft, changing the schedule or not having staff. Those costs really pale compared to the consumers' compensation.
Really the scheme, I've come to think, is more about compensating consumers for their inconvenience because the system isn't going to work. We have other problems, as I think you heard in previous committee meetings, around the way airports work, the way security works and all of these international flight and competition issues.
You can still fly. What really gets under my skin about this entire thing is that airlines can still fly. They can fly late. They can cancel flights. They just have to pay.
What we're missing here is the sort of automatic.... If a 100 people on a 200-passenger plane make a claim, well, too bad: Pay for 100 cancellations or 100 delays. That's the cost of stranding people if you're going to operate like this. That might give them an incentive to change in future, but at least those people will get something for having been crushed under the wheels, so to speak.